Matsushita Electric H1 opg profit rises 6.1 pct, keeps FY outlook

Matsushita Electric H1 opg profit rises 6.1 pct, keeps FY outlook - UPDATE

	Published : Tue, 30 Oct 2007 09:18 By : Agencies Print this Story

TOKYO (Thomson Financial) - Japan's Matsushita Electric Co Ltd, the world's largest consumer electronics maker, said Tuesday its fiscal first-half operating profit rose 6 percent, helped by higher sales of its digital cameras and

flat TVs.

The Osaka-based maker of Panasonic and National brand products posted operating profit of 219.99 billion yen in the six months to September compared to 207.39 billion yen in the same period last year.

Three analysts polled by Thomson Financial News had forecast operating profit of between 210 billion and 220 billion yen.

Net profit fell 8.7 percent to 105.12 billion yen in the absence of one-off gains. In the same

period last year Matsushita booked a special income of 16 billion yen after selling its cable unit.

Revenue rose 3.1 percent to a record 4.53 trillion yen.

'Revenue reached an all-time high as sales of digital consumer products, including flat TVs, grew, while sales of white goods were brisk, led by strong demand in Europe and Asia,' Matsushita Electric director Makoto Uenoyama said at a press conference.

White goods refer to such products as air conditioners and refrigerators.

Matsushita said it sold 1.71 million plasma TVs and 1.43 million LCD TVs in the first half. Both PDP and LCD TVs are sold under the Viera brand.

In the corresponding period last year, the company sold 1.38 million PDP TVs and 980,000 LCD TVs.

'While we continued to struggle in the US, our flat TVs were sold well elsewhere, especially in Europe,' Uenoyama said.

Falling TV prices

Sales of its flat TVs, by value, rose 29 percent in Europe from a year earlier, while sales in Asia

including China increased 31 percent and sales in Japan edged up 1 percent.

Sales in North America fell 7 percent.

Uenoyama said shipments of flat TVs are likely to start recovering from the current quarter with US inventories now dropping

In the current year to March 2008, Matsushita plans to sell some 5.0 million plasma TVs, up

from 3.5 million units sold in the past fiscal year.

The company also aims to sell more than 10 million digital cameras for the full year, equivalent to about 12 percent of the global market.

'Our digital cameras are now well accepted as high-end products in Europe,' Uenoyama said.

Matsushita, which holds the largest share of the world's plasma display panel market, was not immune to the unabated fall in prices of flat TVs.

In the second quarter to September, the average street price of Viera-brand plasma TVs fell 20 percent in the US, while the average price in Europe tumbled 30 percent.

Matsushita estimates that falling prices of consumer electronic products reduced first-half operating profit by about 192.8 billion yen.

'But increased sales, a weak yen and rationalization efforts helped us absorb the impact of declining prices,' Uenoyama said.

Matsushita said its cost-cutting and rationalization efforts boosted its first-half operating income by 172.8 billion yen.

For the full year to March 2008, Matsushita stood by the forecasts it made in July when it projected net profit of 246 billion yen, operating profit of 477 billion yen and revenue of 8.78 trillion yen.

(1 US dollar = 114.17 yen)

yasuhiko.seki@thomson.com

yas/ms

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Matsushita Electric H1 opg profit rises 6.1 pct, keeps FY outlook - UPDATE